About “Blackstar ★”

“★” (pronounced “Blackstar”) is perhaps Bowie’s most experimental work since 1977’s Low. It contains several total shifts in instrumentation, but whilst images of death crop up repeatedly, the lyrics are abstruse and there are no obvious clues to any story unifying the fragments.

It is the titular first single from Bowie’s 27th and final studio album, released on the 8th of January 2016. Bowie tragically died only two days later. Unbeknownst to the world, he had been struggling with liver cancer for 18 months.

The song was originally conceived when Johan Renck asked Bowie to compose the theme music for The Last Panthers, a crime show he was directing. An edited version of the song was released for that purpose, before the single version was officially released in full on the 20th of November 2015. It was accompanied by a music video, full of bizarre imagery, directed by Renck.

What was the critical reaction to the song like?

The reaction to the song itself was firmly positive. Mojo described the song’s blend of rock and jazz influences as “exciting and adventurous”, while Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described how it “carries the listener along with it as it conjures up an atmosphere of mounting dread”.